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Spanish Democratic Republic
(1939-1949) Marcha de los trabajadores españoles (1949-1989) |image_map = Spanish State Map.png |image_map_caption = Territory of Spain (dark green) Satellite states (light green) |capital = |common_languages = , , , , |government_type = |religion = (1939-1978) (1978-1989) |title_leader = General Secretary |title_deputy = Prime Minister |leader1 = Fernando Ocampo |year_leader1 = 1939-1949 |leader2 = Jonatán Alcocer |year_leader2 = 1949-1968 |leader3 = Juan Andrés Montenegro |year_leader3 = 1968-1981 |leader4 = Milagros París |year_leader4 = 1981-1989 |deputy1 = Ismael Laguna (first) |year_deputy1 = 1939-1942 |deputy2 = Nicolás González (last) |year_deputy2 = 1984-1989 |legislature = Workers' Assembly |era = / |event_pre = Spanish Civil War |date_pre = July 17, 1936 |event_start = People's Proclamation |date_start = April 3, |event_end = People's Revolt |date_end = May 8, |cctld = .es |calling_code = 34 }} The Spanish Democratic Republic ( ; República Democrática Española) was a and was the predecessor of the modern day Third Spanish Republic. It was formed at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 following the collapse and surrender of all factions aligned with the Nationalists and the unification of all factions that fought for the Republican side under the control of the Spanish Communist Party. All of Spain's territories were later annexed into the newly established Spanish state which was officially declared on April 3rd, 1939 in the Proclamation of the People's Republic by General Secretary Fernando Ocampo of the Communist Party who took over as the de-facto leader of Spain in the aftermath of the civil war. Following the end of the civil war, a communist government was established and the party took over as the sole legal political party and began a process of reconstruction to rebuild Spain and its infrastructure which was destroyed by the effects of the civil war. Fernando instituted his new policies which included Five-year plans, collectivization, and re-education campaigns to establish a strong, stable, and thriving communist state in Spain and to advance the rights of the common working man and woman of Spain. Following the outbreak of World War II, Spain declared neutrality, but took advantage of the war to rebuild the economy and eventually entered into the war on the side of the Allied Powers by 1942 and sent troops to the border with France to repel German and Vichy French armies. Spanish troops were later sent to France during its liberation in 1945 and celebrated the end of the war and Nazi Germany's surrender in May of 1945. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Cold War broke out between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Spanish Democratic Republic aligned itself with the USSR and became a member of there Warsaw Pact and would be a major hotspot int he geopolitical landscape throughout the Cold War. Spain remained neutral throughout the Cold War under the reign of Jonatán Alcocer as General Secretary who instituted his Neutrality Pact with the Western Bloc, but promoted communism in nearby regions. The Neutrality Pact remained the official foreign policy of Spain until 1968 after Juan Andrés Montenegro took over the country and began asserting Spain as an independent nation on the world stage that was able to resist the "tyranny" of western powers or the influence of the Soviet Union and implemented his own form of National Communism which militarization, increased surveillance and censorship, and crackdown on dissent in events such as Spanish Reorganization Campaign, the Catalonia Anti-Revisionist Campaign, and the Basque Socialization Campaign. Such policies remains intact until 1981 when Montenegro died and was succeeded by Milagros París who began a series of reforms including liberalization of Spain. Spain began to open up, but this lead to the influence of western ideas during the and the communist regime ultimately collapsed in May of that same year. History Formation (1936-1939) Prior to the outbreak of , Spain had been engulfed in a civil war fought between the Republicans and the Nationalists. The Republican factions sought to retain the Second Spanish Republic while the Nationalists wanted to overthrow the republic and restore the Spanish monarchy under a fascist state. The civil war went on for three years and ravaged both Spain and the colonial possessions and territories in Africa that the country had possessed. During the war, the Republicans were supplied by the Soviet Union with arms, tanks, and training and by 1937, the Republicans had fallen under the control of the communist-led Spanish Revolutionary Army. By 1938, the communists unified the Republican factions and launched two major offensives against the Nationalists which ended with Nationalist holdings being overrun and their forces were split in half and stuck on opposite sides of the country. After the death of Francisco Franco at the Siege of Northern Morocco, the Nationalists fell apart and were forced to surrender. On April 3, 1939, the Spanish Democratic Republic was proclaimed by Ocampo in the People's Proclamation and declared the creation of a socialist state under the guidance of the Spanish Communist Party. Ocampo era (1939-1949) Fernando Ocampo took over the Spanish Democratic Republic int he aftermath of the civil war and focused his entire early years in office in rebuilding Spain which was left in ruins from the civil war with infrastructure in ruins and most of the population left impoverished. He implemented Five-year plans to help rebuild the destroyed Spanish economy by organizing all abel bodied men and women to work in factories that survived the war and others were assigned jobs to work in agriculture and in other fields. Nationalization was conducted as the entire industrial sector of the economy was put under the control of the central government to aid in the reconstruction of the country. Spain also accepted foreign aid and support from the Soviet Union and Mexico as well to aid in rebuilding the damaged Spanish economy and most of the population was given a job by 1942. When World War II broke out, Spain initially declared neutrality in the conflict, but sent volunteers and expeditionary forces to the Soviet Union following the outbreak of in 1941 sparking the of the conflict and Spain joined the Allies as a result. The Spanish forces sent to Russia were known as the Spanish Expeditionary Army to Russia ( ; Fuerzas expedicionarias españolas a Rusia). Spanish troops fought against Vichy French soldiers in 1942 after the German-Backed puppet state found out about Spanish aid to the Soviet Union which lead to a border war between the two sides which ended in a Spanish victory. The Soviet Union would go on to repeal all German forces from the Soviet Union by 1944 and by that time, Spanish troops helped liberate southern France and soldiers of the Spanish Revolutionary Army flew the banner of Communist Spain over Vichy after they took the city along with other Allied forces. Spain celebrated the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945 and quickly aligned itself with the Soviet Union by Fall of that same year. When the broke out in 1947, Spain aligned itself with the and served as an observer state of the military alliance and made Spain a major issue in Cold War-era politics for the Western powers seeking to not spark a war over the communist state in southern Europe. Spain also provided support to the newly established in 1948 and aided in the spread of socialist and communist ideas into the Balkans and regions beyond just Europe. Ocampo died on October 23, 1949 and was buried in the People's Necropolis in Madrid and was succeeded by Jonatán Alcocer a few days later. Alcocer era (1949-1968) Alcocer took over as leader of the republic on October 24th, 1949 and was voted into office by the Politburo of the Spanish Communist Party. Alcocer would continue many of Ocampo's policies, but was far more anti-religious than his predecessor. On June 21st, 1951, Alcocer adressed the Central Committee where he had claimed that counter-revolutionary elements had infected the Catholic Church and other religious institutions in Spain and cited their spritual support towards the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War as well as the secret "Vatican Line" that was used to sneak Spanish Nationalists and Axis collaborators out of Spain. He would use this to justify violent crackdown on organized religion in Spain. On June 27th, all major cathedrals in the communist republic were closed and were either destroyed or converted into "revolutionary educational centers" or factories according to the communist government. Priests and clergymen that ran the cathedrals were forced to resign or be arrested by the People's Security Forces, the secret police of the communist regime. After the cathedrals were shut down, other large catholic and protestant churches as well as large islamic mosques were shut down and the clergy of all three major religions were given the an ultimatium known as the Clergymen's Oath to the Republic. The demand mandated that all members of the clergy and religious leaders, officials and even apologists were to swear an "oath to the Democratic People's Republic of Spain and to swear undying allegience to the Spanish revolution" according to the demand. Only 10-24% of Christian clergy members and religious leaders took the oath with the rest being arrested or sent into exile and their temples destroyed or forcibly closed by Alcocer's government. The purge had weakened opposition to the ruling communist party, but secretly alienated Spaniards living in more rural and conservative areas of the country. Montenegro era (1968-1981) París era (1981-1989) Collapse and legacy Politics .]] Like the and all member states of the , the Spanish Democratic Republic was a single-party socialist state under the control of the Spanish Communist Party as the sole legal ruling political party in the country with the ruling organization being the Patriotic Front for Spanish Socialism, which was controlled by and was a front for the Central Committee of the Spanish Communist Party which used it to promote "the revolutionary ideology of socialism and liberation for the workers of Spain". The General Secretary of the Spanish Communist Party was the country's official head of state and worked alongside the Prime Minister who was the head of government. The General Secretary would also serve as the Supreme Commander of the Spanish Revolutionary Armed Forces and was the Chairman of the National Defense Committee making the General Secretary the de-facto commander-in-chief and leader of the country. The Communist Party maintained a strict policy to ensure control over Spain and had other political parties outlawed with the only exceptions being regional socialist and/or communist political parties and workers' unions in regions such as Catalonia and the Basque Country. Because of this, the Spanish Democratic Republic was one of the lowest ranked nations in Southern Europe in terms of political freedoms and was criticized by political scientists and dissidents over the Communist Party's monopoly on politics. During the early years of the state, Spain operated in a system where the country was a de-centralized federal entity where the various regions of Spain were granted their own form of autonomy and were to be governed by Workers' Councils and would handle domestic affairs in their respective regions. Each region would also elect a Representative Committee to to represent the region in the Central Government and would make up the Assembly of the Spanish Workers' in Madrid. In the 1950s, the country was altered politically and Spain would be centralized as a result of the Reorganization Campaign in the 1960s and 1970s. The Spanish Democratic Republic would be turned into a unitary state where the communist party had near-unrestricted control over much of Spanish society from politics to culture and even social life leading to the nation being classified as a by 1974. In 1981, a series of reforms were done which involved the decentralization and liberalization of the country, but its policies lead to exposure to the outside world and the Spanish public turned against the party leading to the regime's collapse by 1989. is the most notable figure of communist Spain.]] The Patriotic Front for Spanish Socialism was dominated by the Communist Party and promoted its ideals and platform to the general public as well as help retain its grip on power and monopoly on politics. The Spanish Communist Party was the only legal political party in the country, but there did exist other political parties and organizations that were permitted to run candidates if they were approved by the Central Committee. Such parties included the Socialist Party of Catalonia, the United Basque Workers' Front and the Andalusian Socialist Union. Such parties represented their respective autonomous communities and nationalities and often had similar or the same ideology and policies of the Communist Party and would often promote the party and the policies of the Central Government within their respective regions. Many communities retained the previous Trotskyist political system, but it was overturned in the 1970s when the approved parties began losing regional elections to independent socialist or First World-esque liberal political parties instead prompting the implementation of the Reorganization Campaign from 1971 until 1977 which saw great erosion of national sovereignty, civil liberties, and political freedoms for many of such communities with Catalonia suffering the worst incidents during the Anti-Revistionist Campaign. Elections Elections in the Spanish Democratic Republic and varied depending on the regions and type of elections. The Trotskyist system had permitted the election of local representatives to representative councils known as Labour Councils and were made up of communist party officials elected by their respective communities. All citizens were eligible to vote as long as they were 18 years old at minimum. Elections for the Worker's Assembly were held once every five years and all candidates running for seats in the central government ran as members of the Spanish Communist Party. All candidates on the ballot were either members of the ruling Communist Party or were from other minor political parties and organizations. such as the Patriotic Front. In regional elections for the provinces of Spain, a representative council existed in regions such as Catalonia and the Basque Country, but were disbanded in favor of Workers' Councils in the 1970s during the Anti-Revisionist and Socialization Campaigns to crack down on political opposition to independent socialist or western-style liberal political parties which began defeating Communist politicians in elections. Judicial system The judicial system of the Spanish Democratic Republic was handed over to the Tribunal Popular ( People's Court) and the judges were all selected by the General Secretary and were approved by the Central Committee. Every judge was a member of the Communist Party and were also members of Judicial Committee, which oversaw the People's Court and every judicial body across Spain. Judges typically had no limit on the number of terms they can serve nor any number of years they can hold power and typically remained in power until resignation or death. The Communist Party would monitor all judicial activity and the courts would have to report to the Politburo and Central Committee. Human rights According to the constitution of the Spanish Democratic Republic and the Proclamation of the Republic, all citizens of Spain were granted freedom of speech, religion, press, petition, and right to assembly among other civil liberties and rights. Fernando had initially enforced such laws and gave the Spanish population some form of civil liberties, although many of these rights were eroded by the reeducation campaigns, but civil liberties persisted in Communist Spain until Fernando's death in 1949 and his successor, Alcocer, took over as General Secretary. As leader of the republic, Alcocer cracked down on civil liberties and his authoritarian style of rule saw the erosion and elimination of many of the rights that were promised to the people of Spain. Alcocer became infamous for his crackdown on the Catholic Church which resulted in hundreds of churches being desecrated, shut down and even demolished in some cases. His anti-religious campaign stems from his time in the Spanish Civil War where he played a role in the Red Terror during the Siege of Madrid. When Alcocer stepped down and Montenegro took over, he began to reverse the anti-religious laws and damages done during the campaign and eased restrictions on organized religion. His pro-religious stance stemmed from his adherence to Catholicism, though his faith as been a source of contention among historians, and the implementation of National Communism in accordance with the New Nation Thesis and its enforcement on August 14th, 1972. Censorship was eased, but intensified in 1974 during the reorganization campaign where new laws cracked down on "anti-revolutionary and ideological conspiratorial elements" which justified cultural and political oppression. This included the arrest and disappearances of dissident politicians and members of the various communist parties and organizations of the Basque Country and Catalonia. By the campaign's end, as high as 120,000 Spaniards were arrested and/or detained on charges of "counter-revolutionary activity" and upwards as 12,000 were secretly executed or sent into exile. Demographics Languages Ethnic groups Religion Revolutionary culture Category:Countries Category:Nations Category:Former Nations Category:Spanish Democratic Republic